Mr. Gerow had staged the most threatening challenge to any Republican incumbent so far this year and the biggest scare to any committee chairman since the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994.

Top Republican leaders were alarmed by Mr. Gerow's aggressive media campaign, financed by outside groups, and sent in the troops to beef up and modernize Mr. Goodling's typically lax approach to his typically easy re-elections.

Mr. Goodling said tonight that the effort by a pro-term-limits group based in Wisconsin to overthrow him had backfired.

''You can't steal elections, particularly if you're outside coming in,'' he said after a few tense hours of waiting for the results.

At the same time, returns from 65 percent of the precincts showed Representative Jon Fox, who represents Montgomery County in suburban Philadelphia, holding his seat against three Republican challengers.

The support for both incumbents was a reassuring sign to Republican leaders that voters this year are content enough to keep the status quo, which bodes well for their goal of retaining control of the House this year. The Senate is not seen as being in danger of falling to the Democrats.

Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican seeking his second term, had no opposition today. In the Democratic primary for governor, Ivan Itkin, the State House minority whip, beat Don Bailey tonight.

Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican on his way to a fourth term -- unprecedented in this state for a United States senator -- cruised to easy victory over two minor primary opponents. State Representative Bill Lloyd beat two rivals for the Democratic nomination.

Mr. Goodling, 70, has served in Congress since 1974, succeeding his father in the seat. In challenging Mr. Goodling, the 42-year-old Mr. Gerow, a lawyer who has never held public office, picked up the banner of the 1994 Republican revolution.

Mr. Gerow embodied the growing conservative dissatisfaction with the Republican stewardship of Congress. The conservatives said that the party had become a captive of the system it was supposed to change and that the Republican leadership and committee chairmen like Mr. Goodling had capitulated to compromise.

Mr. Gerow ran against Mr. Goodling in 1996 and received a surprising 45 percent of the vote. He strengthened his campaign considerably this year and put a scare into the party's leaders in Washington.

The party, including Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the majority leader, rode in like the cavalry in an effort to save Mr. Goodling. The National Republican Congresional Committee pumped $60,000 into the campaign and propped up the all-volunteer effort with a professional manager.

Mr. Gerow, who had little organized support in 1996, drew significant attention, and investment, this time around, particularly from supporters of term limits.

A Wisconsin group, Americans for Term Limits, poured $300,000 into television and radio advertising here, chiding Mr. Goodling for what it described as his perpetuation of a 38-year family fief, counting his father's years in Congress. Mr. Goodling had said he would not seek re-election but did anyway. Mr. Gerow signed a pledge saying he would stay in Congress no more than six years.

Mr. Goodling was forced to respond in recent days, appearing in a television commercial in which he declared, ''I hope you're as incensed as I am'' that a group from Wisconsin would presume to dictate to voters here. But he did not mention why the group cared. Nor did Mr. Goodling mention that he, too, was supported by an outside group,the Foundation for Responsible Government, which has backed moderate Republicans like Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in New Jersey.

Mr. Gerow also received support from the conservative political action committee headed by Gary Bauer, a leader of the Christian right. That committee, the Campaign for Working Families, spent $25,000 on radio commercials and gave $5,000 to Mr. Gerow's campaign.

The entry of Mr. Bauer, a strong opponent of abortion, on behalf of Mr. Gerow was curious because Mr. Goodling also opposes abortion. But Peter Dickinson, co-executive director of the Campaign for Working Families, said Mr. Goodling had supported Federal financing for international family planning. In suburban Philadelphia, analysts said Mr. Fox's bruising primary campaign had weakened him for the November election, when he will face Joseph Hoeffel, a Democrat and Montgomery County Commissioner. Mr. Hoeffel came within 84 votes of unseating Mr. Fox in 1996.

Two other states held primaries today. In Arkansas, national Republicans did not wait for the primary to begin planning the fall campaign of State Senator Fay Boozman, a religious conservative they were banking on to beat Mayor Tom Prince of Little Rock for the Republican nomination.

On the Democratic side, none of the four candidates in today's race won a majority. The top two finishers advancing to the runoff were former Representative Blanche Lincoln -- who quit after two terms in 1996 after having twins -- and Attorney General Winston Bryant.

In Oregon, a former representative, Wes Cooley, who was damaged two years ago by his false claims of having served in the Korean War, failed in his effort at a comeback in his rural district, finishing third in a four-way race. Greg Walden, a broadcaster and former state legislator, received 56 percent of the vote; Mr. Cooley had 8 percent.